Legalization of marijuana

By: jim

E-mail: wutang112878@hotmail.com

Recently doctors have prescribed marijuana, and 'the Clinton administration threatened to prosecute doctors who prescribe marijuana,' (Gonnerman 40). Doctors are prescribing marijuana for its medical benefits. The Clinton administration on the other hand is outlawing marijuana because it has not been approved by the FDA. Since doctors feel marijuana has medical benefits it should be clinically tested so they can prescribe it for their patients. Marijuana can be used for many medical reasons. For cancer patients receiving chemotherapy marijuana decreases vomiting and nausea; it also helps them deal with the anxiety of the treatment. AIDS patients can use marijuana because of its ability to stimulate their appetite. Marijuana can also be used to decrease the muscle spasms of people with epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. Glaucoma, a disease which causes blindness due to an increase of pressure in the eyeball, can be dealt with by using marijuana because it decreases the pressure in the eyeball (Cowley 23). All of these diseases are terribly painful for the patient, and none of them have a perfect cure, but marijuana does help the patient deal with the disease. There are drugs with marijuana's active ingredient, THC, which can be used in place of marijuana, but most of them are problematic. Marinol can be used by cancer patients and AIDS patients. Marinol can cause intoxication; it is only available in a pill form which is hard to swallow while vomiting and it is difficult to take the correct dosage. Patients with epilepsy and multiple sclerosis can use dantrium and lioresal. However, dantrium can cause liver damage, and lioresal causes sedation and sudden withdrawal can cause hallucinations and seizures (Cowley 23). Xalatan, beta-blocker eye drops, miotic eye drops, and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors can be used to treat glaucoma but each drug has a side-effect. Xalatan can change the eye color of the user. Beta-blocker eye drops have been known to cause lethargy and provoke asthma attacks. Miotic eye drops constrict the pupil and therefore dim vision. Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors can cause numbness and weight loss (Cowley 23). The side effects from medicine with the active ingredient of marijuana are conventionally used by doctors instead of marijuana. It has been proven that these side effects are result from using the conventional medicine, but it has not been proven that marijuana has these side effects. Therefore marijuana should be tested so that it can legally be used instead of conventional medicine. There are many cases where marijuana has been used for medical reasons. Each one of these cases is a reason that marijuana should be researched for medical use. One reason that marijuana is prescribed for patients is that, the conventional medicine that doctors prescribed for their patients often causes horrible side effects. In some of these cases marijuana could have been used rather than conventional medicine. Susan Nelson was prescribed an anti-nausea drug to help her deal with the chemotherapy she received for her lymphoma. The drug worked wonderfully to aid her digestion but 'it also lowered her inhibitions, causing inexplicable urges to throw plates and roll burning logs on the living-room floor,' (Cowley 22). Nelson discontinued her use of the anti-nausea drug that her doctor prescribed, and she began to illegally smoke marijuana. Although what Nelson did was illegal, the marijuana did not give her the side effects attributed to her previous medicine. Marijuana was a superior treatment, as Nelson says: 'When I smoked it, you could still trust me,' (22). Hazel Rodgers is a 77-year-old from San Francisco. Rodgers was diagnosed with breast cancer and she also has glaucoma. To deal with her anxiety ...

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